Spend Your Way to Wealth – Secret #4 – Part 1

3:09 Now, let's get started with today's message. Are you looking to find financial margin and peace in your life? Solomon suggests that one of the keys is to spend your way to wealth. People have always been fascinated by the subject of money, for good reason when you think about it. I mean, despite all the bad press that money gets from us preacher types, The fact is, money can do a lot of wonderful things for people when you think about it. Money can relieve stress. Money can provide independence. Money can help us fulfill our dreams in life. When you think about it, money can do a lot of the very same things that God promises to do for us, at least at first glance. And I think that explains why Jesus said in Matthew 6, verse 24, no man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will despise the one and hold on to the other.

4:10 You cannot serve, you cannot worship God and money. Notice Jesus didn't say you cannot worship God and your work. Or you cannot worship God and sex. It's not that those other things cannot be idols for us. They can. But Jesus understood that money has a unique ability to take our heart's affection because of all of the things it can do for us. That also explains why Paul said in 1 Timothy 6.10, for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many a pain. and yet most people I talk to they don't have any desire to fall in love with money they don't want to worship money instead most people's attitude about money is like one couple who talked to me recently they're facing the first year tuition bill for their child's college education they said pastor we just want to have enough we just want to have enough did you know by the way that is a biblical goal for your finances to have just enough. Enough to meet your current and your future needs. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 30, if you would. Proverbs chapter 30. Solomon was the wealthiest man of his day. He understood both the benefits of money, but he also understood the limitations of money. After all, he had a lot of it. You look at Solomon's writings in both Proverbs in Ecclesiastes, Solomon taught, for example, don't worship money because it can be easily lost.

5:52 In Proverbs 23, verses four and five, we read, do not worry yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on money, it is gone for wealth certainly makes itself wings and like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Money can increase stress, Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5.12, he said, the sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much. The person who doesn't have a lot, he's able to sleep at night. He's not worried about his finances and what he's going to do with all of his money, but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. Solomon said, money can rob us of present joy in this life. In Ecclesiastes 5.13, he said, there is a grievous evil, which I've seen under the sun, riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. So given the benefits of money and also the limitations of money, Proverbs tells us what a reasonable goal for us ought to be in our finances.

6:52 And it's found in Proverbs 30. Look at verse eight. The writer said, Lord, here's my prayer. Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with a food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or that I be in want and steal and profane the name of my God. The writer is saying, Lord, here's my prayer. Don't give me too much money because if I have too much, I could be tempted to say I have no need for God. How many wealthy people do you know just like that? But he also said, Lord, don't give me too little lest I be tempted to do something wrong to steal and profane your name. God, what I'm asking is that you give me just enough. That ought to be our goal in money, to have not too much, not too little, but have just enough. The question is, do you have enough? Do you have enough money, enough financial resources to meet both your current and your future needs? Well, let's take an exam right now to determine if you have enough, okay? I'm going to ask you four questions. They're not the only four questions I could ask, but here are four questions that will help you determine the state of your financial health right now. Are you ready for this? Here's question number one. If you or your mate were to lose your jobs, neither one of you had a job, how long could you survive? How many months without a paycheck? Question number two. If you add up all of your assets, that is everything you own, and subtract all of your liabilities, everything you owe, is that number a positive or a negative number? Question number three, for those of you with kids still at home who are facing college bills, do you have enough to provide for their college education if they choose to go to college?

8:42 How much do you need for that? I went on a website this week, collegedata.com, and according to this website, the average cost for a four-year public education, public school, that's tuition and all the other expenses, the average cost is $100,000. For a private college, it's $170,000. Do you have enough to provide for your kid's education? Question number four, what about your retirement? You know, there's a day coming for everybody. It doesn't have to be 65 or 70, but there will be a day when you are no longer working with a steady paycheck coming in? Do you have enough money for retirement for when that day comes? How much money should you have right now for your future retirement? There are all kinds of formulas that people use, financial planners, to determine how much you ought to have right now for your future retirement. But here's a real simple formula. Take your age, multiply it by your current salary, and divide by 10. And that's the amount of money you ought to have right now. Your current age times your salary divided by 10.

9:52 For example, if you're 40 years old, you make $50,000 a year. Multiply 40 times 50,000, divide by 10. That means right now you ought to have $200,000. You can do the math. Now, what do those four questions reveal about your financial health? Do you feel pretty good about where you are? Are you ready to go out and slit your wrist right now? Now, before you reach for the razor blades, if it's the latter, you need to understand that most Americans owe more than they own, have not made adequate plans for retirement, and could go more than a few weeks without a study paycheck. You see, most Americans believe that the way to financial security is to earn a bigger salary, to win the lottery, or hope Aunt Gertrude dies before the first kid has to go to college. But as we're going to discover today, Solomon says the secret to financial success in life is not in earning, winning, or inheriting. The secret to financial success that God wants all of us to experience is through spending. That's right. You heard me right. The Solomon secret for success in your finances is to spend your way to wealth. Now to know exactly what I'm talking about and what Solomon is talking about, turn to Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21.

11:19 Financial consultant Dave Ramsey, who was in our church about a year ago, a year and a half ago, He tells about two couples that came to see him for financial advice a number of years ago. And the first couple that came to him was a couple that was earning $35,000 a year. Even though they were earning $35,000 a year, they had accumulated $150,000 in their 401k plan. They had no credit card debt, and they only had three years worth of payments left on their $70,000 home. That was couple number one. Couple number two that came in right after the first couple had $64,000 in credit card debt. They drove two leased cars. They had $175,000 outstanding mortgage on their home. What was their problem as compared to the first couple? You might assume that the second couple that had $64,000 worth of credit card debt and $175,000 left on their home, they must have earned less money than the first couple earning $35,000. No, Ramsey said the second couple was earning $84,000 a year. So how is it that one couple, admittedly a few years ago, could survive and thrive on $35,000 of income, and yet a second couple earning twice as much money was on the brink of financial insolvency? The key is the first couple had learned the Solomon secret for success in money, and that is margin, financial margin. You see, a lot of people, again, believe, well, if I just had more money, if I had a bigger paycheck, I'd be financially okay. But Solomon exposes the fallacy of that thinking in Ecclesiastes 5.11. He said, when good things increase, those who consume them increase. In other words, the higher your income, the higher your expenses.

13:15 The more you make, the more you spend. Can I hear an amen on that? I mean, we all know that's true, don't we? And so that's why Solomon said, no, the key to financial security is in margin. It has to do with your spending. What is margin? Write down this definition. Margin is that comfort zone. It's the buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life. Margin is that buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life. Let me illustrate it for you this way. Take your outline right now. Hold it up so I know you're paying attention. Take out your outline. I want you to look at the outline very carefully. Did you notice all the wasted space on that outline? There's a lot of wasted space. It's white space. White space around the margins. White space between the words. I mean, if we wanted to be more economical around here, we could have filled up every inch of that outline with black type. But it would have been very difficult to read, wouldn't it? Margin gives it ease of reading. It provides comfort to the reader.

14:23 It's the same thing that is true in every area of our life. If we fill up our life completely, if we have no buffer zone between where we are in our limits, in our work, in our relationships, and in our finances, it produces a great deal of stress. Dr. Swenson in his bestselling book, Margin, describes what life is like without any buffer zones. I bet some of you can identify with this. Living without margin is being 30 minutes late to the doctor's office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the hairdressers, because you were 10 minutes late dropping the children off at school, because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station, and you forgot your purse. That is life without margin. The fact is when you're always pressing the limits, you're going to feel stress in life. And that's true about your financial life as well. People who live in their finances without any margin, that is they're spending everything they have are under incredible stress. Perhaps you know people like this. Perhaps you're a person like this.

15:25 You live from paycheck to paycheck, hoping and praying you run out of month before you run out of money. And if there's anything unexpected that comes up in the month, a car repair bill or a medical emergency, there is no way to cover that. And as far as big ticket items for the future, like a college education for your kids or your own retirement or caring for elderly parents, why don't even think about that. There's no way to plan for that. And yet people do think about it. And so they have this nagging fear in the back of their minds that not all is well in their finances. And because of that stress, they live under unbearable pressure that extends to their relationships. Did you know financial consultant, one noted financial consultant, says that 90% of divorces are precipitated by financial pressure. That's the result of living without any margin. And that's why Solomon gave this Solomon's secret for success with money.

16:21 Look at Proverbs 21, verse 20. Solomon said, there is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man swallows it up. The foolish person is the one who consumes everything he has. In Solomon's day, it was oil. That was a priceless commodity. The fool is the one who spends everything that he has. The fool is the one who lives from paycheck to paycheck, who says, I can't think about tomorrow. Someday I'll get my finances under better control. Sometimes the foolish person actually wraps his apathy and laziness in a spiritual veneer that says, oh, I'm going to trust God for the future. After all, Jesus said, live one day at a time. Does God want us to have financial margin? Does he want us to have this buffer zone between what we spend and what we earn?

17:17 I need to offer a caution here about what the Bible says about finances. There is a difference in the Bible between saving money and hoarding money. The Bible draws a distinction between saving and hoarding. You know what saving is? It's setting aside a reasonable amount of money to meet future expected and unexpected needs. Saving is setting aside a reasonable amount of money to provide for future expected and unexpected needs. You know what hoarding is? It's stockpiling as much money as you possibly can to protect yourself from every adversity in life. And of course, that's impossible. But a person who is a hoarder doesn't understand that. He's the guy who's always running around, turning off lights, realizing that he's probably costing more by the wear and tear on the light bulbs and the energy he's saving doing so. He's the person who will drive across town to save a nickel on a loaf of bread, oblivious to the gas that he spends doing so. He's the kind of person who will never take a vacation. He never has quite enough money because he's always saving for a rainy day instead of enjoying the sunshine of the present day.

18:30 That's what a hoarder does. I have found, by the way, in my experience, that many people who went through the Great Depression. I'm not talking about the one in 2007. I'm talking the one back in the 30s. Many people who went through the Great Depression find it very difficult to spend money. They remember the horror of those four years in our nation's history. And so they hoard and they hoard and they hoard instead of being reasonable in the amount of money that they set aside. Listen to Ecclesiastes 5.13. Solomon says, there is a grievous evil which I have seen under the son, riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. You see, the problem with hoarding money is it robs you of the joy God wants you to have in this life as well. You've heard me speak before about my father. My father was a wonderful Christian man. In fact, he's the reason the rest of my family, my mom and all of us became Christians. And I learned a lot of great lessons from my dad. And one of the lessons I learned from my dad was the importance, the discipline of saving money. I remember when I was a little boy, my dad would get paid two times a month.

19:38 And on those Fridays, he would take me with him to the bank, to the Hillcrest State Bank across from SMU. And he would take me with him as he would deposit his check. And then he would purchase a United States savings bond and would go downstairs to the vault and would walk in there to his safety deposit box. And he would deposit that savings bond. He did that twice a month religiously. And when my dad was a relatively young man, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, told he had just a few months to live. And I never will forget sitting around the kitchen table with my dad going over his affairs. He knew he was about to die. I'll never forget what he said to me. He said, you know, Robert, I spent my whole life setting aside this money so that I could enjoy it one day. And now I have to end up leaving it to you knuckleheads. Do you know Solomon said basically the same thing?

20:40 In Ecclesiastes 2.18, he said, Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And when we're talking about financial margin, we're not talking about being a hoarder of money. We're talking about setting aside a reasonable amount in the present to take care of future expected and unexpected needs. What are the benefits of doing what Solomon said, of not consuming everything you make and setting some aside? I want you to notice in the Bible, there are three benefits of having financial margin, a buffer zone between your income and your expenditures. Number one, financial margin offers freedom to do the right thing. It offers us freedom to do the right thing. Years ago, I was listening to Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Remember her?

21:32 Who gave the advice on the radio all the time? Everybody listened to Dr. Laura. I was driving somewhere and had it turned on to Dr. Laura. And this lady called in and she said, Dr. Laura, I don't know what to do. Said, my father's been diagnosed with cancer. He lives in another state and I would love to go visit him before he dies. But I can't afford to take off work the two weeks. I can't survive without two weeks of a paycheck. And not only that, I don't have the money for an airplane ticket without going ahead and racking it up on my overextended credit card. What should I do? Talk about being on the horns of a dilemma. She had two choices and neither one of them was good. Do I experience financial insolvency? Or do I experience a lifetime of regret for not seeing my dad? See, that's the kind of choice you have or lack of choice when you have no financial margin. Financial margin gives us the freedom to do what we need to do.

22:31 Financial margin, having that buffer zone, allows you to change jobs and do something you really want to do in life. Financial margin allows you to take that mission trip that you've been dying to take. Financial margin allows you to start that new business that God has placed on your heart to start. All of us need financial margin in our life. It is the freedom. It provides the freedom to do the right thing. Thank you. Solomon's book of Proverbs will give you nuggets of wisdom that are guaranteed to bring success. And Pathway to Victory has assembled a collection of helpful resources to help you learn more. First, I've written a book that dovetails with this series. My book is called The Solomon Secrets, 10 Keys to Your Success. This is one of the most highly requested books I've written because it's so practical. Many are using this book to guide their discussion in a small group setting.

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